1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an organic EL device equipped with an organic electroluminescence (EL) element, an organic EL device, and an electronic apparatus equipped with the organic EL device.
2. Related Art
An organic EL element is configured to have an anode, a cathode, and a functional layer including an organic light-emitting layer interposed between these electrodes. A functional layer emits light when energy, generated by re-combining a hole injected from the side of the anode and an electron injected from the side of the cathode in an organic light-emitting layer, is converted into fluorescence or phosphorescence. However, when water or oxygen penetrates into the functional layer through the anode or the cathode from the outside, injection of a carrier (the hole or the electron) into the organic light-emitting layer is prevented. This decreases luminance of light emission or causes the functional layer to degenerate and to lose a function of light emission. As a result of this, a so-called dark spot occurs.
In the organic EL device equipped with such an organic EL element, a sealing layer that covers the multiple organic EL elements is formed to prevent penetration of water, oxygen or others.
On the other hand, multiple connection terminals to which various wiring of the organic EL device is connected is provided in the organic EL device described above, in order to accomplish a connection to an external drive circuit. When forming the sealing layer, it is necessary to expose the connection terminal so that the connection terminal can be electrically used because the connection terminal is formed earlier than the sealing layer.
For example, in JP-A-2002-151254, a method of manufacturing an organic EL element is disclosed in which after forming a layered body that results from depositing an anode, an organic layer including a light-emitting layer, and a cathode, but before forming a protective film equivalent to the sealing layer, a surface of an electrode connection portion is reformed in such a manner that the electrode connection portion is not covered with the protective film.
Furthermore, for example, in JP-A-2010-244696, a method of manufacturing an organic EL device is disclosed that includes forming a first gas barrier layer, made from an inorganic material, which covers a light-emitting region including multiple organic EL element on an element substrate, using a plasma CVD method, and forming a second gas barrier layer in such a manner to overlap planarly with respect to the first gas barrier layer using an ion implanting method. In such a method of manufacturing an organic EL device, the first gas barrier layer and the second gas barrier layer are formed using a film formation mask that has an opening corresponding to a light-emitting region. To put it another way, since the connection terminal is covered with the film formation mask, the first gas barrier layer and the second gas barrier layer that are equivalent to the sealing layer are not formed on the connection terminal.
In the method of manufacturing an organic EL element, disclosed in JP-A-2002-151254, it is necessary to reform the surface of the electrode connection portion in advance. Because of this, there occurs a problem in that the manufacturing process becomes complex.
Furthermore, in the method of manufacturing an organic EL device, disclosed in JP-A-2010-244696, when the element substrate and the film formation mask are not set to a predetermined position, there is a concern that an inorganic material will be attached to the connection terminal. Therefore, the smaller is a portion on which the connection terminal is provided, the more difficult it is to align a position of the element substrate with a position of the film formation mask. In addition, at the time of a mass production, because it is necessary to remove the inorganic material attached to the film formation mask, this causes a problem in that the durability of the film formation mask is required.